Pretoria’s international relations minister says the government was recently forced to intervene on humanitarian grounds after an unauthorized mass entry of Palestinians

South Africa’s international relations minister, Ronald Lamola. ©  Phill Magakoe/Gallo Images via Getty Images

South Africa’s international relations minister, Ronald Lamola, has accused an Israel-linked group of manipulating the country’s visa system to orchestrate an unauthorized mass entry of Palestinians.

The incident, involving a South African-chartered aircraft carrying 153 Palestinians that remained grounded on the tarmac for more than 12 hours, forced the government into a humanitarian intervention as officials worked to verify the passengers and establish how the flight was organized.

Speaking on MacG’s Podcast and Chill, Lamola said the group had made use of South Africa’s visa-free arrangement with Palestine and that intelligence pointed to external interference.

”They exploited a loophole because of the situation in Palestine. We have a visa-free regime with Palestine. So, they exploited that loophole through some players that we suspect involve some of those that are linked to the Israel regime,” he said.

Lamola stressed that although the aircraft had valid landing rights, no authorization was given for a mass arrival of foreign nationals, a requirement under international norms when large groups are transported. ”That was a South African plane. They had the landing rights and everything and the people. But with such things, when we want to bring people en masse, there must be an agreement between the two governments. There was no such agreement,” he added.

Lamola defended Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber’s initial call to halt entry, saying the irregularities justified precaution. But as conditions on board deteriorated, the government was forced to step in.

”The minister of Home Affairs made the call, but we supported him because it was clear that now, we have to act on humanitarian grounds.”

Ultimately, Dirco and Home Affairs agreed to process the passengers, allowing those who wished to depart to do so and permitting others to remain subject to South African immigration law.

“We ended up agreeing that we should make a humanitarian intervention and process them through immigration, and those who wanted to leave left and those that wanted to follow our laws would do so.”

 

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All arrivals were vetted, Lamola confirmed. Humanitarian organization Gift of the Givers provided food and accommodation during the processing period. However, Schreiber announced that national intelligence structures confirmed a pattern of deliberate abuse of the visa exemption, driven by external role-players connected to efforts to move Gazans out of the war zone under the guise of short-term travel. And so, the 90-day Palestinian visa waiver was pulled.

 

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“Following investigations and recommendations by national intelligence structures and consultations within the Security Cluster – which confirmed the deliberate and ongoing abuse of the 90-day visa exemption for Palestinian ordinary passport holders by Israeli actors linked to ‘voluntary emigration’ efforts for residents of the Gaza Strip – Home Affairs has withdrawn the exemption,” Schreiber said. He added that short-stay visa exemptions are commonly used by countries to encourage tourism and short-term travel.

First published by IOL